Our audience, it has been a more difficult process for classical music audiences around the world, and I'm not completely certain why.

Conducting is intensely social. You work with a hundred people every day. You collaborate, you try to focus their thoughts, you try to give them a concept, you try to inspire them, and it's actually exhausting.

The players never think they project enough. In a hall that seats 3,300 people, it's a very scary thing to play so quietly that you can barely hear yourself.

There is more openness in LA to possibilities than on the East Coast of America. There is a pioneering spirit there that stems from the reason people went out there in the first place-to find something new.

Our industry [classic music] has kind of retarded into this kind of endless cover-producing thing, and it's a pity.

The Royal Festival Hall in London is nice; people hang out there. I think this inviting, non-exclusive character is very important.

I'm still disturbed if a chord isn't together, but your priorities change as you get older.